July/ August 2012 Volume 6, Issue 3

Prep Fires
Your Editor, Jon Halfin After more than a decade off and on of in depth research, and a very serious effort both last summer and this summer, We are proud to bring the first scenario of our Nederlander Pack to the pages of this e-zine. The 23rd SS PzGr Nederlander Brigade was one of the premier units in action throughout the Eastern Front, from Odessa and the Crimea, to the Caucasus, the Volkhov Forests, Cherkassy pocket, the Kurland Battles, Stettin on the Oder Front, and finally destruction in the suburbs of Berlin. We are happy to be able to tell the story of this unit via ASL scenarios well researched. On the Western Front, our PBEM CG of La Glieze is winding to the exciting finish, and we take a good look at the armored recon from the 3rd and 4th Armored Divisions push into the flank defenses of Kampfgruppe Peiper. Back to the basics brings us to the many various ways to eliminate an AFV without heavy gun tubes. A critical skill for most ASL scenarios set pre- 1944. We finally look at the AAR from our recent funfest in Buda Pest, The Narrow Way played at our NorCal ASL Club meeting this June. The guns await!

Inside this Issue

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

PREP FIRES The Editors column. BOUNDING FIRE: News in the Bay Area for ASL players DECISION AT LA GLIEZE: The updated report and AAR from the Front in Belgium in this CG. FB 14: The Narrow PassageA rousing good AAR of a Bill Cirillo perfect scenario for fun! Nederlanders Pack: The first in the scenario pack on the rd men and evolution of the 23 Nederlander Divisione der Waffen SS. This is Tooth and Nail - SS-ND1. BACK TO THE BASICS: Hunting Tanks. How to take on rolling razor blades without heavy guns. DEFENSIVE FIRE Letters to the Editor, Opponents Wanted FPF: Upcoming West Coast ASL events calendar and information CLOSE COMBAT

An Independent Journal of ASL Thoughts and Ideas

Published free of charge by the Silicon Valley and Nor Cal ASL Clubs. If you paid for this, you need to get your money back! ASL is a registered Trademark of Hasbro Inc. and MultiMan Publishing Inc. Artwork includes counter art and map art from Rodney Kinneys brilliant creation of VASL. This artwork is used with permission from Mr. Kinney. Thanks to both Mr. Kinney and Carl Fago for the quality work on one truly innovative product for our hobby

Ordering information

Silicon Valley ASL Club and the NorCal ASL Club publish Point Blank! as a non-profit magazine. The editor is Jon Halfin Please submit any articles or comments to the Editor at witchbottles@gmail.com All submissions become subject to the rules of this publication upon inclusion. Articles accepted in any electronic format. Please add artwork maps or counters in a separate .gif,.jpg or .bmp

155s, the town of Bourgemont looked like this:

Bounding Fire
Many interesting items vis a vis ASL on the immediate horizon! We should be seeing J10 come ASLOK, and Critical Hit as announced a CH! Annual for ASL Comp products that sounds like another top-notch effort. Bounding Fire Productions is closing in on their Polish module, and Steve Dethlefsen says we should be seeing the final Heat of Battle effort, Kohima before the years end. With this, and probably Rising Sun for WO2012, there is a lot to break open the ASL piggy banks for this fall. My own piggy is feeling a bit intimidated as I fondle the hammer whilst reading MMPs Summer Update pages, so he lit out for a hiding hole somewhere in my house, Well have to find him soon enough. Festung Budapest in the hands of all, and so much on our ASL plate before January. I think it will need to be an ASL holiday season again this year! I am also announcing the new permanent location for the Newsletter for all those not wishing to find it at the listervs for our Clubs. You can now access all the available issues at

DECISION At La Glieze AAR #1:

Pattons Spearheads to the rescue! The date is Dec 22nd, and Pattons 4th Armored Division has pushed their spearheads out towards Bourgemont, looking to cut off the advance of the Panthers from KGP. We rolled into this one on the heels of 2 back to back idle days finishing off the 3 required idles the Amis must take in KGP CG3. With the accumulated points, both sides were to the point of buying the bottom of the barrel. For the Amis, this was all the light armor, and few infantry. For the Germans, it was 99% of their remaining non tank RGs. It was shaping up to quite a fight as the armored recon troops from Pattons Spearheads mustered over 30 light tanks to support a slender foot soldier force. In addition, remaining points bought a devastating Corps level bombardment, and 45 concealment counters to be used as Dummies. It added up to a tough day at La Glieze for 22AM. First up, the weather. Overcast skies and clear sent the dreaded Jabos back to England with all their ordnance on board. This was gonna be ground fight today, start to finish. Next came that bombardment. Whoever thought this devil up was a real winner. A 7 hex radius and no immune locations for each one. By the end of the bombardment from those

http://aslpointblank.blogspot.com
Good Hunting and Keep Rollin Low!

The blast area had opened a huge hole in the german lines below Bourgemont, and the Amis angled to take advantage of the situation. This would turn out to be both the best day of tank killing yet for the American forces, and the bloodiest for them as well, as light tank after light tank burned in flames from super tubed gun hits. On the good side, the german losses cannot be replaced, no more RGs to do so, and the Americans open up the last 2 dates with a ton of new RGs, and a ton of CPPs to spend on them as well. On the bad side, yet again the Amis get kicked off the map in a bloody mess overall. The end game for this CG date shows a horrible mess of a battlefield:

his FPF shots gunning down everyone in the streets! The first of many awesome events in this game. Vannay Manners: ( Steve Bowen went postal in the Postal Palace and beyond) The Vannay set out to hold onto the Palace, and they did an awesome job of just that. By T3, however, Steve felt the Russians needing some more worrying in the Palace, so he set up to move some reinforcements in via sewer move. Anything but a 6 on the colored die for these Vannay troopers, guess what? Yep, a 6 colored die, they stray. Well since the SSRs say any events like this require a random selection rollout for who will be moving them ( 2 opposing forces, in our case 3) Joe won and the Germans moved them into their planned location in the basement of the place anyway, where they emerge to ambush a Russian FT team in CC!!! Nicely done, and yet more excitement as the Postal Palace will be held in part by the Huns to the end of the game. The next exciting event of the game was Dennis driving a T34/85 to point blank range of a vannay sqd, who grabbed the closest PF and fired, eating the backblast. The 1,2 hit smoke checked the T34 in place, the resulting 1MC on the vannay was rolled out for a HoB, and they get a 6! For hero and fanatic! One more awesome event down, one to go BVR on the march: ( I lead a sharp assault at the German rear.) The BVR started out with not much, yet due to the gap in the rear of the German lines, I quickly got into 2 VC bldgs there on Turn 1. The 1st I managed to maneuver a LMG/ 336 into the top floor of, where he remained the entire game , the unbreakables, soaking up 12+3 and 12+2 after shot , after shot, to no avail. Joe finally decided shooting wasnt gonna do it, so he assaulted them instead. The ensuing CCPh was a MAD

AAR #2 FB -14 The Narrow Passsage:

Ok, its a 3 player scenario from FB and we did it with 4. So what? It was a blast all around for everyone there, and we all give special thanks to Bill Cirillo for this awesome creation of fun , ASL style! The Cast: The German Kommandant: ( Joe commanded the Florian Geyer forces in Budapest.) The Germans set up with an interesting overstacking into the large victory building, and only small flanking troops on either side of the VC Buildings to his rear. A safe setup out of initial LOS of most enemy forces meant a possible reverse slope defense in planning? Afterwards, Joe revealed he had misinterpreted his setup area, and this was the reason for his selecting a force preservation setup to start with. The Roozhians: ( Dennis Donovan lead his proletariats to the finish line). Dennis set up to hit the Postal Palace hard, and to enter with a good flanking drive into the side of the german defenses, With but a single 658/ LMG under ammo shortage ( concealed at start) to hold off the Russian hordes, it looked like a good thrust into the flank and rear of the Germans. Looks were deceiving, as Joe got a whole string of hot dice and turned the entire drive into mush in the streets around this valiant sqd who passed NMC after NMC with

( The dead pile: lots of light AFVs, and some dead kittys, too!) With the last night game turn fast approaching I must add my opponent has gone from Noobie to average player during the course of the PBEM CG. If you get a chance to play Andrew, you will enjoy the game. Now lets see if hes learned enough to hold off Pattons heavy combat commands on the 23rd!

( mutual assured destruction), and that meant the bldg was STILL controlled by BVR!!!! Even with nothing but dead bodies! Last, my devious mind saw those Russian DCs and 7-0 ldrs as assault engineers a la BVR. The Germans brought up a tank, parking it in the street to the right front of my entry area, so my 7-0 waltzes in, takes a PBF CMG8-2 shot for nothing, places the DC, takes a MA PBF shot for a miss, takes a BMG TPBF shot 8-2 for nothing, then steps back into his bldg next to the tank. The placement DR ---Optimally placed, aerial AF used, from the hull side. One more awesome detonation, and goodbye , panzer, hello flames!! Of course that event made the exclamation possible Now that, gentleman, is how to kill a tank!. At this point, the combined huns working to cross-purposes from both sides had pretty much made life too rough for the Germans and Russians. At the end of T4, with a huge VP lead from all the bldgs being controlled for so long, the enemy surrendered to the combined Hungarians, and the battle ended. We all agreed , this scenario is way too much fun for simple ASL. You have GOT to try this from Festung Budapest. The rest is all icing on the cake.

Scenario Corner: Retuning to ASL scenario design.. SS- ND-1 Tooth and Nail:
Its been many ears since a scenario graced these pages. Chris Olden did us more than a few favors with his creations earlier here, and my own inept first attempts as well. Without further ado, here is the newest to see the light of day here: In February of 1940, Felix Steiner was ordered to form a panzergrenadier force to be attached to the Waffen SS from Western European volunteers. The unit would eventually become the 5th SS Wiking Division, and one of its many constituent units would be the men who formed the 10th Westland PzGr Regt. These volunteers came from Holland and Luxemourg, and their forces would eventually be deployed in every major battle of the Eastern Front. The men joined for a variety of reasons. Some were enamored with the NSDAP; some were staunch anti communists, and took the hard line anti communist rhetoric of the NSDAP at face value. Some would join in a spirit of adventurism, for their world had evolved during the Blitzkreig from the local village life to a world full of danger and travel to far away places. One of the latter was Hendrik Voortens. His elder brother, Eric, likewise had volunteered, but Eric was an anti communist, whereas Hendrik was a daydreamer. 4 long years forged in the fires of the Eastern Front would change Hendriks views. In the end, less than 1 man of 20 would return to The Netherlands in 1945. Of these, all would be ostracized for decades, along with their surviving family members, as collaborators of the Nazis.

The men who marched valiantly in 1940 would be dog tags collected by the Russian occupation troops in 1945. The doomed battalions fought to the end, knowing there was nothing left to run away to. Eric perished, with many of his comrades, in the Kurland Battles of late 1944. Hendrik would survive, and 50 years later, write his memoirs as an old man bereft of his daydreams he had gone to war for. This scenario pack is the story of this unit, and its heroes, and its fallen. The Nederlanders at least earned their place in history with their fierce reputations in battle. The first of the set takes us to the Volkhov Forest, where the infantry of the Westlanders has been detached to form fire brigades to stop the armored assaults. We hope you enjoy it. I must give credit to all of the assistance in this project, both complete and still ongoing: Initial research assistance: Paul M. Wier Michael Dorosh Mark Pitcavage Jeff Sewall In depth research assistance: Kevin Kenneally Paul M. Wier Herr Von Marwitz from the GS Forums Proofing: Eoin Corrigan Paul M Wier Mark Drake Steve Bowen Kevin Kenneally Ian Willey Playtesting: Steve Bowen Andrew Kerekes Mark Drake Eoin Corrigan Kevin Kenneally

Thanks to all the above, and everyone else who has pitched in tidbits of information to assist. The scenario pack still has 7 scenarios more to finish, and any help you may offer for playtesting or proofing would be greatly appreciated. Please Email me if you are willing to assist.

SSRs: 1. EC are Wet, with no wind at Start. Kindling is NA. Ground snow is in effect. NQ is in effect for both sides. German MMCs have winter camouflage (E3.712). 2. Captured Use penalties (A21) do not apply to German MMCs (EXC: Russian SWs and AFVs.). German LMG (f) are 2 PP SWs. Germans may use ATMM(EXC usage dr <=2 to acquire and only a -1 drm to CCV). German 46-8 / 2-4-8 have MOL. <=2 German squad equivalents may set up HIP, and any/ all SMC/ SWs set up with them. The Germans may exchange any / all of the AT mines for 2 AT Mine Daisy Chains. German MMCs / SMCs suffer unit replacement as per FB 15.1 3. Russian 3-2-8 HS are Assault Engineers and Sappers. They may automatically recombine at any timewithout the presence of a leader, to gain infantry smoke grenade exponent. the Russian 2-2-8 crews must set up possessing the 50* Light Mtrs at start. All Russian AFVs must enter BU . The T34/43 may never voluntarily go CE. 4. place overlay x6 on 32W4.

and / or

Back to the Basics: Hunting Rolling Razor Blades

Everyone well knows the abilities of a late war German MMC in anti tank capabilities. Between PFs, ATMs, and CCVs and Street Fighting, the German late war sqd is a tank eating machine. It did take several years of warfare to develop these killer squads, and now we take a look at how we got from Bolt Action rifles to tank killers.

Squad, we get a 5 Base CCV #. The Maltilda is in motion , unless its owner has a death wish, so we are +2 DRM for the First Fire CCV attack.

If we look now at Example #2, we can add in a 8-1 ldr into this position, and now we have a CCV # of 6 for both units, a -1 LDRM, and a +2 motion making a 4 or less to immobilize or a 3 or less to outright wreck the beast. Best of all, since it is already in our own hex, we do not require a PAATC for this, and it all happens as Defensive First Fire. Not shabby odds, when most of our MA guns will simply bounce off that heavy armor at this stage of the war.

We have here an example many of us face in early war scenarios in ASL. The dreaded Dammit! I have nothing that can penetrate that armor! virus that causes us such fits and starts in 1939-1941. Chief of them all is that vaunted Maltida, so we shall use her here as the prime example and have her being assaulted in a few separate actions.

Toss into the equation now example #3: that 8-1 possesses a DC. Now we can make the Brit sweat it out, as long as we maintain good fire discipline on his way into our location. That DC represents a deadly attack on the Maltida, and can knock it out quite effectively, even if thrown at the tank instead of being placed there.

Example #1, our intrepid Afrika Korps Troopers huddled down in decent position on Bd 25 in that useful in front of th hill stone bldg with just their rifles, as the Maltida waltzes up to the attack. Bypass freezing the troops, she shows her true worth in early war, as the armored behemoth she is. So how do we deal with this beastie? There are still a few tricks up the sleeve. First, remember that you can CC Reaction Fire as a form of Defensive First Fire on any vehicle in bypass of your own location, as long as you are not yet marked with a fire counter. So we place the First Fire marker, and launch our first assault. AS a

Finally, we should look at the last thing we can do to boost the odds, that is using assault Engineers and their inherent grenade bundles or Gammon Bombs, depending on whose side you are on. Example #4 assume an 838 Sqd with the 8-1 ldr there. Now we are CCV # 7 -1 LDRM and +2 motion for the Maltida. It will immobilize on a 6 or wreck on anything less. That is better odds than most 75mm guns can get us on these armored leviathans, even.

The key here is to remember fire discipline. If you shoot to place rfp on the hex as the Maltida

approaches or enters, you are foregoing these much better chances of affecting the Maltida in the enemy MPh, before you even get to your DFPh, much less his AFPh. Take advantage of this as often as possible, and always weigh what you need more when the invulnerable armor comes a knocking at the doorstep: rfp or a CCV attack as First Fire.

Peabody Road, Vacaville Street: 123 Peabody Road City State Zip: Vacaville Phone: 707-455-8445 Opening bell is at 11 am and closing bell is at 11 pm. See you there. We have subsidiary groups meeting throughout the valley also most notably: The Miniature Wargaming Society of Sacramento meetings is only on Sundays, at the Carmichael library here in Sacramento. We have 2-3 ASL players involved so if you come up for a day trip, let us know in advance and we can get you into a game. And also: There's also a small group playing ASL on the 1st and 3rd Sundays at Endgame in downtown Oakland.

This was a nice thought, and one I decided to act upon, you can now find links to every available back issue at the new Point Blank! Blogspot!
aslpointblank.blogspot.com

I will still be loading Point Blank to Scribd and the Yahoo Listservs for the clubs in addition to having it at the new blog.

Club News:
Having passed our Contact DR with 8s all around; heres the news from our local ASL scenes.

SVASL Club:
SVASL Club regular meetings are scheduled for the 4th Saturday of every month, at the game room of the Game Kastle, located at 1350 Coleman Ave., Santa Clara, CA 95050 ph: 408-727-2452 http://www.gamekastle.com Everyone is welcome to post to the Club board at the Yahoo Group Website if you would like to pre-arrange a scenario or opponent.

Defensive Fires

Letters to the Editor

On 5/27/12, SIMON CHURCH <simon.church3@btinternet.com> wrote: > Hi Jon, > > > Please could you email me the latest issue? Also, could you let me know if > there is a site where I can view past issues? > > Many thanks > > Simon

On 4/26/12, Joseph Gochinski <jgochinski@yahoo.com> wrote: >> Jon >> >> Thank you!! I appreciate the effort into the newsletter and sending it to >> me. I agree about the difficulties of GS. I have "tried" to upload an >> excel >> file few times and it has been a problem?? I wish things were easier to >> use >> on GS as this seems to be the main ASL forum/site on the web. >> >> Many thanks again!! >> Joe

Opponents wanted:
Seeking VASL PBEM opponents for just about anything. . I prefer IFT. Please e-mail me at witchbottles@gmail.com if you are interested.

Nor Cal ASL Club:

Nor Cal ASL Club has three separate meeting locations for the ASL players in the group. The primary one is 2nd Saturdays at: Location: Olde World Games, 123

Point Blank! A product of The Silicon Valley ASL Club and Nor Cal ASL Club Published completely free of charge No material from this publication may be sold of exchanged for goods without written consent from The Editor. Otherwise, all material may be reproduced for FREE distribution or revision into other FREE magazines, or personal use, only.

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How to Contact the Editor:

Combat

Distributed via E-mail or Direct Download as a free newsletter and journal of the SVASL, and Nor Cal ASL Clubs Available at www.scribd.com or aslpointblank.blogspot.com
I am always accepting articles. You dont need to be a whiz as ASL to write about ASL. Look at me! If you would like to submit an article, see Pg.1 notes.

For Nor Cal ASL Club membership or questions, visit our Website at:
Http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/norcalasl.

For SVASL Club membership or questions, please visit our WebPages at: Http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SVASL

Older volume Back issues of Point Blank! Are still available at Witchbottles@gmail.com the Pointblank Website http://aslpointblank.blogspot.com /

Or, look for our newsletters posted to the files sections of our Yahoo! Groups WebPages for your download convenience.